


Log #45

by CitricApples



Category: Original Work
Genre: Aliens, Alternate Universe - Future, Gen, Outer Space, Solar System
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-22
Updated: 2019-08-22
Packaged: 2020-09-24 06:28:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20353918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CitricApples/pseuds/CitricApples
Summary: Two aliens are sent on a mission to explore a solar system and report their findings.





	Log #45

**Author's Note:**

> This was posted in Emotion Pills as well...but I really liked it so it gets its own story.
> 
> Nothing is particularly scientifically correct but I know a bit about space, hopefully it's enough to tide me over.

Low beeps drifted through the pod, the scanner searching and relaying information about the area. Ethryxn kept a steady hold on the control panel, their gaze locked on the view outside of the craft with a twinkle in their eye, as if they hadn’t seen anything like this before. From where they lounged beside them, Pt’iocha watched unimpressed—the pair of them had done this many times already, and had experienced even more before they were paired together.

With a flick of a switch, the pod glided to a stop, overlooking another system.

“This one’s nice,” Ethryxn commented. “One of the smaller ones.” They pressed a button then, speaking into the built-in pod mic just like everyone who did these missions was taught to do. “Log 45 from Pod Kynntra-Minus. We have reached system code 4d-57-61-79 with no trouble. From here until the end of the log we will record our vocal observations as the scanner feeds back images to go with our claims.”

Pt’iocha leaned forward then, serious and back in business. “There appears to be only one star in this system and it is smaller than what we usually find, being thirty-two times smaller than our own according to the readings from our scanner. There are ten main orbitals, nine if you don’t count the smallest one with the farthest planet being almost unnoticeable due to its distance from the star, and there is a belt of asteroids between the fourth and fifth orbital.”

“No signs of life just yet,” Ethryxn said, slowly guiding the pod forwards. They watched the readings carefully as they drove, looking for any changes at all—hopefully this wasn’t an empty system, as the last two missions had been. When the screen blipped, they gasped. “Oh, never mind there’s- uh, not a life-form, but some kind of advanced tech in the fifth item’s orbit. That means there’s life somewhere, right? Or there at least was?”

“The fifth item is the largest orbital in the system,” Pt’iocha droned on, and Ethryxn wilted at the formality of it all. “It has 68 orbitals of its own, and our scanner has picked up that at least one of them is made of advanced technology rather than being natural. I suspect there may be a couple more.”

“What’s it doing?” Ethryxn asked, mostly to themself, as they watched the unnatural orbital through the scanner’s camera. “Is it…should it be doing something?”

“It’s dormant,” Pt’iocha said, observing the orbital through a diligent gaze. “Although by the looks of it…it was designed to capture images and send them to another orbital.”

“Which one?”

“It’s not clear, but I think it’s one nearer to the system’s star.”

“Then let’s keep going,” Ethryxn decided, pushing the pod on towards the star. The gap between the fifth and fourth orbital took some time to cross, and while Ethryxn gently navigated the pod through the belt of asteroids, Pt’iocha sat back and thought.

“Didn’t we pass something like that unnatural orbital on our way to this system?” they asked. “The scanner picked it up, it seemed to be heading towards another star…”

“In the opposite direction, yeah,” Ethryxn said. “But it was really far from this system, so you said it wasn’t relevant. And yet we’ve found a very similar piece of technology here…”

A couple moments passed in silence.

“There was life here, definitely,” Pt’iocha concluded. “And those life-forms were intelligent, too, if they managed to send technology outside their home system. Perhaps they came close to interstellar travel?”

“You speak like there isn’t any life left,” Ethryxn pointed out. “Just because we haven’t seen any yet, doesn’t mean it’s not there.”

“Well, yes, but…you’d think that we would have picked up on some signals if there was anything.”

They got to the fourth orbital then, this one made of solid red rock and much smaller than the gas giant they had just seen. Immediately, the scanner picked up on something.

“There’s another one! Another piece of technology!” Ethryxn read the scanner with glee. “…Although it’s not in orbit. Do you think…?”

“It’s a rover,” Pt’iocha said. “Again, probably not from this orbital, as there is nothing else of interest here, and it seems to be observing the ground.” Neither of them could actually see the rover on the orbital’s surface, given their distance from it, but they both watched as the little piece of tech moved across the scanner doing its thing.

“We’re picking up sound signals,” Ethryxn claimed, brushing at the blinking light on the scanner screen. “Should I—”

“Yes, send them through, of course.”

With the flick of a switch, the pod was filled with various different tones, coming one after the other in a succession of robotic notes. There were gaps, differing lengths and pitches, and it held no meaning to the two in the pod, but overall it sounded quite tuneful.

“How curious,” Pt’iocha said, reaching over to cut off the sound transfer. “I’m not sure what purpose that serves, but it’s rather pleasant nonetheless. Whatever created these pieces of technology were definitely intelligent and complex creatures. Let’s move on.”

Ethryxn nodded, continuing to move the pod towards the star while humming the rover’s tune quietly to themself.

It took a bit of manoeuvring around the star to find the next orbital, given the nature of orbits, but they knew when they were drawing near long before they ever saw it, as the scanner started going off like crazy.

“I think,” Pt’iocha started, reaching over Ethryxn to manage the control panel, “That we’ve found the main active orbital of this system.”

This orbital’s surface was blue, a much different colour to the two they’d stopped by before, and the readings on the scanner showed that the surface was mostly made of liquid. There were some patches of land dotted within the oceans, a bit of green and brown drowning in blue, but without the scanner it didn’t look like there was much to see. 

“Active?”

“We’ve been over this—”

“I know, I know, I just…it’s not exactly the most accurate name, a lot of the time, is it? I can’t see anything.”

“Turn up the scanner.”

Ethryxn turned a dial, watching the readings on the scanner expand and peak like fast-growing mountains. Miniscule flashing dots appeared on the screen—signs of simple life-forms being present, but nothing major enough to explain why this was the main orbital, and definitely nothing intelligent enough to make the technology they had passed. The actual _presence_ of life was probably enough reason to label this one as the main active orbital, given how no actual life had been picked up on other orbitals, but from the scanner readings the truth was clear.

They had found another system whose inhabitants had destroyed themselves.

“It’s another crashed scenario,” Pt’iocha said, traces of disappointment in their voice. Watching the scanner, they could make out shapes beneath the liquid; structures and patterns showed signs of past civilisation, although no life was there to show for it.

“At least there’s _some_ life though,” Ethryxn pointed out. “That’s a good thing…right?”

“…Let’s just go.”

“What?”

“There’s nothing else for us to see, come on.”

Ethryxn looked back at the orbital and the rock that danced around it, accompanied by more examples of the tech they noticed around the system, before reluctantly turning off the scanner and guiding the pod away. The two of them sat in relative silence for some time before Ethryxn sighed, stopping the log recording and turning to face Pt’iocha, who was adamantly avoiding their gaze.

“You know there’s still hope for this system, right?” they tried, watching their friend huff.

“I just don’t know why they do it. Surely they…how could you not be aware that you’re making your planet uninhabitable? You saw the readings, it was much warmer than it could have been naturally, and way too hot for any species that could possibly develop on that orbital. They could have paved their way to greatness, but…” Pt’iocha glanced at Ethryxn for a moment, then stared out the window. “Instead they chose destruction. And they’re gone now.”

More silence passed, Ethryxn mulling over everything that Pt’iocha had just spit out at them as the pod travelled out of the system. Their friend was upset, that much was clear, and they had become privy to a side of Pt’iocha that never seemed to come out—a side that they didn’t want to see.

“…Well,” Ethryxn started, trying not to deflate when Pt’iocha didn’t make any move to acknowledge them. “Think about it. Since the two of us started these missions together, how many crashed scenarios have been reported back to base?”

Pt’iocha shrugged half-heartedly. “Eleven?”

“And out of those eleven, eight of them had traces of life leftover. Then there have been missions back to six of those systems, and you know what they found?”

“Humour me.”

“They were thriving!” Ethryxn grinned, thinking of every time the logs came back with the good news. Everyone at base was ecstatic. “Every single one of them, evolved into civilisation as if they had never been dead in the first place. You just need that spark.” Pt’iocha sighed, knowing Ethryxn was right. “So we’ll return to this system later, or maybe someone else will, and it won’t be dead, I’m telling you.”

“Yeah, but…it won’t be the same.” Finally, Pt’iocha turned to Ethryxn. “The planet and the system will be thriving, sure, but whatever species had developed there will never be seen again. Ever. Don’t you think that’s just a bit sad?”

“Is that what you’re so upset about?”

Silence met that question, a sign that Pt’iocha was not going to answer, and Ethryxn decided to continue. “I can’t…well, there’s nothing we can do to fix that, I suppose. What’s gone is gone. But maybe, you know, the new species will be better. They can learn how to keep what they have safe, they won’t lead themselves to destruction, you know? I think they can learn.”

“You think?”

“Well…you just gotta hope so.”

**Author's Note:**

> "But there aren't that many planets in our solar system" yeah but I read a post about how astronomers have found another planet that is so big and orbits so wide that they just haven't seen it until now, and it hasn't even made a full orbit of the sun in the past 2019 years, and I want to believe because it sounds so surreal that I squashed it in


End file.
